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Christie, Andrew F. --- "A Legal Perspective" [2006] ELECD 345; in Bosworth, Derek; Webster, Elizabeth (eds), "The Management of Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: The Management of Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Bosworth, Derek; Webster, Elizabeth

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845421120

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: A Legal Perspective

Author(s): Christie, Andrew F.

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

2. A legal perspective
Andrew F. Christie

1 INTRODUCTION
Intellectual property could be called the Cinderella of the new economy. A drab
but useful servant, consigned to the dusty and uneventful offices of corporate
legal departments until the princes of globalisation and technological innovation
­ revealing her true value ­ swept her to prominence and gave her an enticing
new allure.1

This quote, taken from a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
publication, says much about the state of intellectual property today. After all,
it has only been a couple of decades since intellectual property was generally
regarded as a rather obscure, but necessary, field of legal regulation. In the
last few years, however, intellectual property has become recognized as the
driving force of economic growth and cultural development. As a result, the
law of intellectual property has entered the consciousness of an ever-widening
part of the public, and is increasingly seen as a matter for public policy as
well as for private exploitation.
Despite its growing importance, intellectual property remains a challenging
area of law. This is because, unlike the laws of real property, the laws of
intellectual property create rights between individuals that are vested
in abstract objects ­ being objects that, inherently, are difficult to define.
Furthermore, intellectual property is an ever-expanding field, and its role in
society has become increasingly significant and complex. This is due in part
at least to its cultural specificity, as a regime that is founded on the notion of
both knowledge and ...